nurses rights

J

Janeom

Guest
hi,

My mother recently retired as a part time nurse in a local privatly run nursing home with 40 beds. Anyway this question is not about her but an ex-colleague who is also a nurse (call her nurse X)and has worked on saturdays and sundays for the past 6 years. Normally she has another nurse and a nurses aide on with her .
Anyway last week the other nurse went on holidays for a month but no other nurse was coming on to cover for her but in her place would be another nurses aides. ...So Nurse X refused to work without another nurse. A nurse who normally works during the week filled in her shift (seemingly they won't agree to work with her on the weekend but I suppose when the managment were desperate they felt they had to go in).

Anyway nurse X enquired on Friday what was the situtation for this weekend only to be told her services were no longer needed.
Just wondering has she any entitlements ? Can she just be let go like this ?
There is no union there, I don't know about her contract but I guess her situtation is like my mother who worked there for 13 years without any contract. Most of the nurses working there are women who have reared their familes and gone back to work in their 50s so I guess a lot of them are glad of a bit of money on the side (they pay tax and prsi) but somehow I feel they should have more rights.....maybe they don't have any when they never signed any contract.

Janeom
 
The absence of a contract does not remove their entitlement to basic legal minimum standards, like statuatory redundancy if they are being let go.
 
she should also get onto An Bord ALtranais. There may have been an ethical problem about being the only qualified nurse (who'd cover for her breaks?) & they should be able to come up with support in the form of nurses' ethics, which they are bound to uphold and not put patients at risk.
 
Thanks for that,

I'll pass on the information. Seems from the web sites you can be dismissed for unappropriate behaviour/misconduct although there are supposed to be a number of warnings given etc before the actual dismissal I guess her refusing to work could be seen as misconduct. She probably needs to find out if there is any minimium nurse:p atient ratio thats allowed which might make her case stronger.

Contacting Bord ALtranais is a good place to start.

Janeom
 
..

Unless she had been made aware IN ADVANCE that her actions would constitute a serious offence worthy of dismissal, the employer had no right to sack her.

If, on the other hand, HER JOB was surplus to requirements, then a redundancy is a possibility. However, from the circumstances you give there is a fairly clear link between her refusal and her being let go.

A case to the Employment Appeals Tribunal would seem in order - details from www.entemp.ie
 
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